Patriarch Lubomyr: ‘We want to be a free church so that donations will not stop us from saying the truth when it must be said’

"Our position is not to accept donations from official authorities for it is always fraught with a certain 'gratitude,' so to say. We want to be a free church so that donations will not stop us from saying the truth when it must be said," the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Patriarch Lubomyr, said in his traditional Christmas interview to Channel 5. The patriarch was asked about the progress of the construction of the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Kyiv and about his attitude toward the denominations that receive allocations for construction needs directly from the state budget. "When a certain state institution or authority supports a church initiative, whatever it may be, whether construction or something else, it, undoubtedly, involves a certain obligation. Perhaps to be silent about something, or to overlook something, in other words, it restricts the church's freedom. It is a very dangerous thing. In order to be itself, the church must be free enough to be able to tell its faithful and all the others about things when necessary," said the head of the UGCC.    According to Patriarch Lubomyr, now, when the process of construction of the Patriarchal Cathedral in Kyiv approaches completion, people readily donate for the cathedral. "For instance, recently, we have received financial support from our faithful in distant Australia. Each hryvnia, each dollar, each euro or any other currency helps," noted the head of the UGCC. In response to a question about whether the authority and the people have became closer in the last year, the patriarch said the still need to find a way to each other and that the distance “roots from the fact that the authorities are not trying to serve the people.” When asked whether in Ukraine today there is a place for a one national church, the patriarch said that today’s authority supports the idea that one church has all the rights to exist in Ukraine – the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate. "It is one of the churches, and we all have the right to be here; this right is provided to us by the Constitution,” said the hierarch. "I am convinced that all four branches of the Church of Kyiv – the UOC-MP, UOC-KP, UAOC and the UGCC – the heirs of Volodymyr's baptism, can find the strength to truly unite, to return to that state from which we started.”

Information Department of the UGCC